


i hoped to find you (standing by my side forever)

by markleeder



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, NCT Dream - Freeform, soulmate!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markleeder/pseuds/markleeder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>because what they believe in their hearts and what they know in their heads is so far apart. there is no way to bridge the gap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i hoped to find you (standing by my side forever)

**Author's Note:**

> title from 'always' by chris jackson  
> summary adapted from quote i came across on pinterest.  
> tbh i am a sucker for non canon pairings

 

Donghyuck grabs Jaemin wrist as soon as they’re out of sight of their parents. He leads him up, straight to the attic. It’s where they first met, it’s where they first fought and it’s where they first kissed. It’s the same dank suffocating space but it has their friendship painted all over it.

It’s all the more suffocating today. Jaemin’s wrist burns, the imprint of Donghyuck’s hand fresh and reddening. It’s painful, more so because Donghyuck can’t seem to look at him.

They’re two steps away but Jaemin faces Donghyuck’s lonely back, the tingling on his wrists pleading, desperate. They’re about to be separated in less than 12 hours.

“Dad’s pretty shaken”, Jaemin says, his voice small “he’s afraid to let me off so soon”

Donghyuck doesn’t say anything. He can almost hear their fathers talking downstairs, saying they were only sixteen, too young for the world, too young to be tied down. It was the most beautiful thing in the world, finding the one you truly belong with, but cruel and sad for all that you have to give up to ever have that one other for yourself.

It was the way of the world, an indication from the stars that spoke of the exact moment of intersection of two lives, meant to be spent together.

It was customary to get a countdown timer according to the birth chart at the age of 16, a band fashioned to the taste of the user. Only two people in the world will have the same time down to the millisecond.  

“How’s uncle Yuta?” Jaemin asks.

Donghyuck turns to look at him. His expression is blank, unreadable but Jaemin doesn’t miss the hands that have curled into fists. Donghyuck doesn’t bother hide his band today. His band is tight around his upper arm and Donghyuck can’t see the time on it without looking into the mirror. He didn’t want to play by the countdown. So he never wanted to see it.

But it was pretty much right in front of Jaemin’s eyes.

11:01:27

“Dad thinks I’m responsible enough to take care of myself” Donghyuck closes the distance between them. He takes Jaemin’s hand in his and pulls him closer. “He’s past that fearful phase uncle Hansol is going through at the moment” Their foreheads connect. It feels a little feverish hot.

Donghyuck lifts Jaemin to the study table and traps him between his arms. Jaemin drops his head to Donghyuck’s shoulder, a hand in his hair, tracing outlines. Donghyuck peppers kisses behind Jaemin’s ear and down his neck.

Jaemin pulls back and brings his hand to Donghyuck’s jaw. He kisses Donghyuck and hot unwanted tears spill. He likes Donghyuck, but this incomplete feeling eating away at his insides grows stronger with the countdown. Close doesn’t feel close enough and he’s so afraid. Donghyuck’s all he’s ever had.

Donghyuck wraps his arms around him. Jaemin buries his face in the crook of Donghyuck’s neck and cries. “What do we do hyung?”

Donghyuck whispers promises into his ears, promises he can’t hope to keep.

“Kiss me like you did the first time?” Jaemin says to him, eyes pleading between wet lashes.

Donghyuck hand slides around his neck to pull him close, another slides to his knee. His hand scrapes across Jaemin’s countdown band, four inches above the knee. He plants a lingering kiss on Jaemin’s chin.

Jaemin breaks into a grin between tears. Donghyuck is as dumbstruck by the smile as he was the first time. Jaemin is irresistible. The thought of separating is unbearable. He wants Jaemin to himself. The thought of Jaemin with someone else is unthinkable.  

He looks down at Jaemin’s timer. He shouldn’t have. He remembers Jaemin’s birthday, the day they had promised to reveal the countdown to each other. They were so very close, it wasn’t wrong to hope they could actually be together forever. The moment of revelation, on the count of three, turned out to be heart shattering.

They were so close to each other’s countdown, they were 15 minutes apart.

But they weren’t together, which was a lot to take in. Their friendship corroded from that point, but to drift back to each other was inevitable. They decided to cross the bridge when it came.

The bridge was right in front of them.

11:03:40, it read on Jaemin’s band.

He doesn’t care much for his own countdown as he does for Jaemin’s. He understands at this moment that the timer is what’s breaking Jaemin too. Donghyuck resists the urge to claw at it. But he can’t resist the tears that cloud his vision and bursts into harsh sobs.

 

-

 

They’re sitting on a park bench the next morning, slave to the idea that someone is about to appear in less than 15 minutes for Donghyuck. It’s terrifying, holding hands when you know things are about to change because priorities will change and so will people.

Jaemin’s grip on Donghyuck’s hand tightens. They’re down to the last minutes.

Right on front of them, a bicycle skids and falls, clattering loudly. A boy falls off it, landing harshly a few feet away from the cycle. Jaemin and Donghyuck watch in horror. The countdown is forgotten. They react instantly but Donghyuck is faster.

Jaemin realises how Donghyuck’s hand slips from his.

He freezes mid run and stares at his hand, then back at Donghyuck near the boy. Donghyuck is genuinely concerned and trying to help. Jaemin thinks he must’ve been imagining things. He hasn’t lost Donghyuck, not yet.

Jaemin walks towards him. There are a few more people surrounding the boy now, but Jaemin’s eyes fixate on Donghyuck’s arm band.

Less than 30 seconds.

The boy says he’s fine, to the people gathered. They separate slowly. Jaemin is still frozen stiff because there is no doubt this boy is the one they were waiting for. There’s a small sound as soon as the timer reaches zero. Two actually.

Donghyuck’s head snaps up. He had completely forgotten he was supposed to be waiting for someone. He looks wide eyed at the boy who looks as surprised as him. The boy frantically checks his band across the wrist.

“I’m Donghyuck” there’s already a small teasing smile on his face.

The boy reddens, but there’s a sheepish grin across his face that makes Donghyuck’s heart flutter. “Mark” the boy says “that’s my name”

That’s when Jaemin knows he has truly lost Donghyuck.

He knows he doesn’t want to wait around. Donghyuck can make it back. He wants to be alone. He runs away till out of sight and slows to a walk. He’s so lost in his thoughts and suddenly he’s thinking he’s not good enough.

He’s no good without Donghyuck.

He almost walks into someone. He’s about to apologise but the sound on the timer startles him enough to make him jump. He realises he wasn’t the only one whose timer went off. The boy laughs at him and Jaemin lowkey threatens to hit him. He can’t have been that old.

He laughs without a care in the world and his eyes disappear behind crescents. He makes Jaemin forget about Donghyuck. There’s an odd bloom in his chest; it tickles. When Jaemin realises there’s a full blown grin plastered across his own face, he doesn’t hate it.

Jeno, that’s what the boy calls himself.  

 

 

 

 

-

/end

-

 

**Author's Note:**

> dad!yusol i just had to im sorry /crying  
> (edit: [tumblr](http://markleeder.tumblr.com/))


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